Musa Jafar Russell Anderson Amjad Abdullat CIS Dept West Texas A&M University

1. Software Academic Initiatives: A Framework for supporting a Contemporary Information Systems Academic Curriculum Musa Jafar Russell Anderson Amjad Abdullat CIS Dept West Texas A&M University mjafar@mail.wtamu.edu randerson@mail.wtamu.edu aabdullat@mail.wtamu.edu

2. Paper Summary • Background • An overview of the Information Systems curriculum and its software needs. • An overview of the three academic initiatives and their software offerings. • Microsoft Academic Initiative • Oracle Academic Initiative • IBM Academic Initiative • A mapping of the curriculum software needs to the academic initiatives offerings • Summary and conclusions of the paper.

3. Background: challenges facing academic Information Systems programs • Appropriately prepare students in advanced Information Systems areas. • “Ability to design and implement information technology solutions that enhance technology performance” • Keep a portfolio of software tools that is current and complies with industry needs. • “computing infrastructures and software tools to maintain a viable Information Systems program”. • keep up with the fast change in releases of software tools • “Laboratory and computer resources [should be] available, accessible, and adequately supported to enable students to become competent in applying current technology in solving problems”.

4. Information Systems Extended Curriculum • Fundamentals of Information Systems: Business Information Systems, their integration across functional areas, data management, knowledge management, decision support and software development concepts are introduced. Productivity tools like MS Access and Excel and occasionally a business intelligence tool are used. • Business Programming: Fundamentals of logic and constructs of programming . Languages like Visual Basic, C, C#, COBOL or JavaIDE(s) such as Microsoft Visual Studio, Borland *Builder(s) and Delphi, Oracle JDeveloper, Eclipse, VisualAge, Rational Software Architect, or NetBeans are used.

5. Information Systems Extended Curriculum • Data Management: data modeling, conceptual database design, logical database design, normalization, SQL, Database administration, performance analysis, triggers, and stored procedures are covered. One or more DBMS products (Access, Oracle DBMS, Microsoft SQL Server, Open Source MySQL, and IBM DB2) are used. Data modeling tools such as Microsoft Visio, IBM Rational, or other modeling tools may be included. • Web Development: Web computing model and protocols, web-client side development, and web-server side development are emphasized. Software technologies like the .net framework, JSP/J2EE frameworks, PHP, javascript, XHTML, CSS, XML, AJAX, ADO, JDBC. Web and application servers such as Apache/Tomcat and IIS Server provide the back-end functionality. This sequence is still emerging. It is the most diverse and transient of all the curriculum sequences. The industry has not yet converged upon a set of mature computing models in this area.

6. Information Systems Extended Curriculum • Analysis, Design and Development: Various aspects of the Development Life Cycle (definition, design, construction, testing and deployment) and the Productive Life Cycle (usage, maintenance and retirement) aspects of an information system product are covered. This sequence may also include the senior project as an independent course or incorporated through out the sequence. Project management, team work, document management, source code control, milestones, deliverables and artifacts are usually emphasized. Software tools like Microsoft Project; a UML tool such as Visio Enterprise, IBM Rational, Visual Paradigm, ArgoUML; and a configuration management tool such as Team Foundation Suite, ClearCase or CVS are typically employed. • Data Communication and Networking

7. Information Systems Extended Curriculum • Data Mining • Business Intelligence • Decision Support Systems • Supply Chain Management • Customer Relationship Management • Enterprise Resource Planning

8. Software needs per discipline

9. SOFTWARE ACADEMIC INITIATIVESIBM Academic Initiative http://www.ibm.com/university/ • The analysis, design and development sequence - it offers through the IBM Rational suite a unified process, and an “integrated” set of tools that support the requirements gathering and traceability (RequisitePro), analysis, design, construction, testing and configuration management tools (Rational software Architect, Developer, Tester, etc.). • The data management and business intelligence sequence – it contains the DB2 set of products and tools including Intelligent Miner.

11. SOFTWARE ACADEMIC INITIATIVESMicrosoft Academic Initiative http://www.e-academy.com/ • Limited Analysis and Design Support. • Strong data management and business intelligence sequence – it contains the SQL Server and SQL Server Business Intelligence set of products and tools including. • Strong Business Programming Support through Visual Studio Set of Tools • Strong Web Development support through the .net framework • Productivity Tools • System Tools

12. SOFTWARE ACADEMIC INITIATIVESMicrosoft Academic Initiative http://www.e-academy.com/

13. SOFTWARE ACADEMIC INITIATIVESOracle Academic Initiative https://academy.oracle.com/ • The data management and business intelligence sequence - through the Oracle Database Management System suite of products and tools, and the data warehousing and Business Intelligence set of tools. • Business Process, Supply Chain Management, and Enterprise Resource Planning - through the Oracle E-Business Suite and the PeopleSoft Enterprise set of tools.

15. MAPPING DISIPLINE TO SOFTWARE PRODUCTS • In the business programming area • Visual Basic or C#, then Microsoft is the only viable choice where academic initiatives support are provided. • Java, then Oracle JDeveloper, IBM Rational Software Architect, or Eclipse are the candidate technologies. • In the web-development area, there is no convergence on tools. • .net framework is adopted, then Microsoft’s suites and IIS server are the technology of choice. • Java-J2EE technology is used, then Eclipse, JDeveloper, or Rational are the candidate web integrated development environments. Apache/Tomcat, Oracle’s Application Server, or IBM WebSphere are the candidate application servers and servlet containers.

16. MAPPING DISIPLINE TO SOFTWARE PRODUCTS • In the analysis, design and development area (probably the second most mature and stable area of content), depending on the depth and level of integration, a combination of • Microsoft’s Visio tools, and • IBM Rational tools provide a good combination that runs the gamut of the development life cycle. • Microsoft Team Foundation Suite, IBM Rational ClearCase are the candidate technologies for configuration management. • Microsoft Project is probably the technology of choice for the project management aspects of the sequence. • In the data management area • IBM DB2, Oracle 10g, or Microsoft SQL Server database management systems and tools provide a stable and mature platform

17. MAPPING DISIPLINE TO SOFTWARE PRODUCTS • In the business intelligence area, • IBM, Microsoft and Oracle provide stable data mining and business intelligence technologies. However, this area is usually tightly coupled with tools in the data management area. A choice in one area dictates the other. • In the business processes area, • Oracle provides a comprehensive set of tools that provides functionality in Customer Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management, and Enterprise Resource Planning.

18. Discipline-Software tools

19. Summary and Conclusions • Transience & rapid obsolescence are common characteristics across software technology • Information Systems programs have to adequately provide a computing infrastructure to maintain a viable Information Systems program: Current release level, Unstable and transient technologies, Hard to predict the trend one year down the road. • participation in academic initiatives from IBM, Microsoft and Oracle, Information Systems programs can provide both depth and breadth for a contemporary and prescient software computing infrastructure.

20. Questions? Thank You